Monday, 28 January 2013

Every day there are
moments that do not seem to lead directly into the next moment. It
must be those isolated moments, laid end to end, in which Zeno's arrow
tries to cross the sky.Since
Zeno's arrow exists only inside his paradox, it can never land, and
since, in those isolated moments -- the broken passages in the routine narrative, the interruptions in the neural traffic flow -- we too begin to take on the
immateriality of a logical demonstration, there is no use in further
discussion of that arrow.A silence falls over the room.All this is happening in a dream, or perhaps as if in a dream.
This is not the loud logical silence of a glacier but the
muffled baffling silence of a dream. In the dream there is a forest,
and in the forest there is water, and in the water there are monkeys whose bodies give off light.

A Japanese snow monkey relaxes in a hot spring in the
Jigokudani valley in northern Nagano Prefecture in Japan. The macaques
descend from the forests to the warm waters of the hot springs in the
mornings, and return to the security of the forests in the evenings: photo by Nick Ut/AP, 11 February 2012

9 comments:

However we may choose to read the expressions -- impassive, contemplative, anciently wise... or possibly just the slightest bit bored? -- it's hard to deny that does look a very creaturely way to get through the winter.

"As for Japan’s snow monkeys, they’re an endangered species, too close to highways, hit by cars and trucks. As well as 'loved' too much by people. When all they want is to be left alone to soak in their pools of hot water. Have read they’re a cantankerous lot and not loveable at all."